bespangeled
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Buffy Episode Guide: Amends S3E10 - The Passion of the Nerd
This is the review of Amends - and I think it's an interesting view of the soul. It works for all 4 of the fanged four really, and it gives some perspective on human evil.
Meanwhile Angel is being taken through one of Angelus’ gruesome cries at the mansion. Looks at this guy’s outfit. This is not preindustrial clothing. This man is describing a murder that Angelus committed, between Surprise and Becoming Part 2. I love the chilling thought of what Angelus might’ve been up to outside of the scenes we saw in Season 2. The ghost turns into the maid and mother from earlier and Angel begs, saying he was a man once.”
“And what a man you were…” — “A drunken whoring layabout.”
So here is a good opportunity to revisit our ever evolving conversation regarding the soul canon. In the review for Surprise, linked here in the top right, I brought up the seeming contradiction that the judge sensed humanity in Spike and Dru, but didn’t sense any in Angelus. I suggested that maybe there was such a thing as a soul residue that might account for the purer evil of Angel. But that theory has never really sat well with me, especially after reading through the volumes of comments and other ideas people had here on the channel. The question came up again in the Becoming Part 2 review.
It wasn’t until I wrote My Top 10 Buffy or Angel Episodes (to pair with wine and a good cry) that an idea clicked for me, specifically relating to my number 1 on that list which I can’t talk about here for spoilers sake. What I was missing when talking about the Judge, was a proper definition of what makes us human. Perhaps it’s our desires, our passions that make us human. And perhaps it’s those traits that define the characteristics of the monster we become as vampires. As Buffy says in Lie to Me
If Liam was as the ghost says here:
“A drunken whoring layabout.”
If he was a man without beliefs or passions or desires. No humanity. Then there would be very little template for the demon to follow that took him over. Nothing for the Judge to burn. No guiding principles other than the demon’s pure sadism, and a singular desire to destroy the world. A great failure as a man would make a helluva monster as a vampire. In contrast, we can imagine the man Spike might’ve been before he was turned. A romantic. A poet. A much more structured template for the demon that took him over. Mind you this doesn’t at all yet answer the question of is a souled demon responsible for the crimes of the unsouled demon. Nor does it explain why Angel and Angelus are treated so distinctly in the canon.
This is the review of Amends - and I think it's an interesting view of the soul. It works for all 4 of the fanged four really, and it gives some perspective on human evil.
Meanwhile Angel is being taken through one of Angelus’ gruesome cries at the mansion. Looks at this guy’s outfit. This is not preindustrial clothing. This man is describing a murder that Angelus committed, between Surprise and Becoming Part 2. I love the chilling thought of what Angelus might’ve been up to outside of the scenes we saw in Season 2. The ghost turns into the maid and mother from earlier and Angel begs, saying he was a man once.”
“And what a man you were…” — “A drunken whoring layabout.”
So here is a good opportunity to revisit our ever evolving conversation regarding the soul canon. In the review for Surprise, linked here in the top right, I brought up the seeming contradiction that the judge sensed humanity in Spike and Dru, but didn’t sense any in Angelus. I suggested that maybe there was such a thing as a soul residue that might account for the purer evil of Angel. But that theory has never really sat well with me, especially after reading through the volumes of comments and other ideas people had here on the channel. The question came up again in the Becoming Part 2 review.
It wasn’t until I wrote My Top 10 Buffy or Angel Episodes (to pair with wine and a good cry) that an idea clicked for me, specifically relating to my number 1 on that list which I can’t talk about here for spoilers sake. What I was missing when talking about the Judge, was a proper definition of what makes us human. Perhaps it’s our desires, our passions that make us human. And perhaps it’s those traits that define the characteristics of the monster we become as vampires. As Buffy says in Lie to Me
If Liam was as the ghost says here:
“A drunken whoring layabout.”
If he was a man without beliefs or passions or desires. No humanity. Then there would be very little template for the demon to follow that took him over. Nothing for the Judge to burn. No guiding principles other than the demon’s pure sadism, and a singular desire to destroy the world. A great failure as a man would make a helluva monster as a vampire. In contrast, we can imagine the man Spike might’ve been before he was turned. A romantic. A poet. A much more structured template for the demon that took him over. Mind you this doesn’t at all yet answer the question of is a souled demon responsible for the crimes of the unsouled demon. Nor does it explain why Angel and Angelus are treated so distinctly in the canon.